Many years ago in the 1990s, Sanjay Khan projected Tipu Sultan as a valorous hero and warrior in the television series The Sword Of Tipu Sultan.
It is time for the other view . Sandeep Singh and Rashmi Sharma launch a film titled Tipu, a slice of history ostensibly exposing the fanaticism of the Mysore King.
Filmmaker Sandeep Singh said, “I was shocked to learn the true reality of Tipu Sultan. The story gave me goosebumps. This is the cinema I personally believe in. Whether it’s PM Narendra Modi, Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, Atal or Bal Shivaji , my films stand for truth. I think people knew what a tyrant Tipu Sultan was but chose to ignore it. And this is exactly what I want to showcase on 70mm. Honestly, he doesn’t even deserve to be called a Sultan. I was brainwashed into believing him to be a braveheart as shown in our history textbooks. But nobody knows his malevolent side. I want to expose his dark side for the future generation.”
Director Pawan Sharma said, “What we are taught in school about Tipu Sultan, is gross misinformation. As a Hindu, I stood absolutely shaken and disillusioned to know his reality as a bigoted Muslim king. Through my film I am daring to show a brutal reality that which has been manipulated just for us to take him to be a warrior hero. He had forced conversion of people who practised other religions, to Islam and destroyed temples and churches. Tipu Sultan’s Islamic fanaticism was much worse than his father’s, Hyder Ali Khan’s. He was a Hitler of that era.”
Author Rajat Sethi on whose research this film will be based, said, “While history has been unkind to many heroes, it has mischievously ignored the tyranny of many others. Tipu is one such historical figure whose adulation and admiration is overrated, while his cruelties have been neatly concealed in our textbooks. Not only history but popular culture – movies, theatres etc – have also systematically ignored a realistic and balanced portrayal of Tipu. This movie is a humble attempt to initiate a course correction on his narrative.”
Interestingly, there is no information on who will play Tipu Sultan in this blissfully revisionist look at history. Perhaps producer Sandeep Singh himself?